OFSP fashion

OFSP Fashion

Dr. Jan Low dons an orange hat at an OFSP event. Biofortified orange-fleshed sweetpotato is a powerful tool in the fight to counteract rampant vitamin A deficiency. CIP Staff

An OFSP decentralized vine multiplier (DVM) takes a walk through her fields in Kenya. Her outfit is a walking advertisement for the healthy properties of her vines. (Photo, Helen Keller International)

Custom designed capulanas are distributed to women charged with promoting OFSP in their communities in Mozambique.

Sweetpotato breeders shade their peepers with the very color that helps prevent blindness. Photo by Christine Bukania/CIP

T-shirts and caps remind communities to think of OFSP when preparing their meals. Photo by Sara Quinn/CIP

Even the dancers at a sweetpotato event color coordinate to the OFSP brand. Music and drama are often used to spread the message about OFSP. Photo by Sara Quinn/CIP

Breads baked with OFSP are advertised at a CIP event. By the year 2023 CIP aims to reach at least 15 million resource-poor households with this resilient, nutritious crop. Photo by Sara Quinn/CIP

A cooking demonstration in Mozambique helps teach communities how to incorporate OFSP into their daily diets. Aprons, head wraps and t-shirts help to reinforce the OFSP brand. Photo by Sara Quinn/CIP

T-shirts such as the one worn by this caregiver in Malawi serve as powerful reminders to other mothers of the benefits of OFSP. Photo by Erna Abidin/CIP

A little girl wearing an OFSP colored dress nibbles on sweetpotato with her friend. Children under five are particularly susceptible to vitamin A deficiency. Photo by Helen Keller International

World Food Prize laureates from left, Dr. Jan Low, Dr. Robert Mwanga, and Dr. Maria Andrade, have worked tirelessly to make orange synonymous with the idea of health. Photo by CIP staff

At CIP even the vehicles promote OFSP. Such branding extends messaging across the roads and highways OFSP staffers travel on. Photo by CIP staff

From hats to t-shirts to lively skirts printed in a telltale orange, fashion has become one of the most playful ways in which International Potato Center (CIP) staff remind people that biofortified orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) is the sweet that brings health. Getting people to adopt the powerful hidden hunger fighter, OFSP, into their diets requires a lot more than simply getting the potent root into people’s hands. In Sub-Saharan Africa where the taste of the white fleshed variety is much more familiar, changing set dietary habits means a concentrated branding effort to help people associate the color orange with health. CIP staff, often known as the orange brigade, use every opportunity to reinforce the OFSP brand and know that even the smallest detail, such as what you wear, is just one more tool in CIP’s mission to end hunger.